Mark Bell's Power Project - Mark Bell's Power Project EP. 234 Live - Nick Wright

Episode Date: August 14, 2019

Nick Wright is a YouTuber, bodybuilder, and powerlifter. He started training as a teen weighing in at 104 lbs with 11.5 inch arms. He competed in his first show at 15 years old, and since then he’s won a ton of shows, became a fitness model, and picked up a couple sponsorships along the way. He’s also a competitive powerlifter competing in the 181 lb weight class. His all time best numbers include: 565 lb squat, 405 lb bench, and a 610 deadlift. ➢SHOP NOW: https://markbellslingshot.com/ Enter Discount code, "POWERPROJECT" at checkout and receive 15% off all Sling Shots Find the Podcast on all platforms: ➢Subscribe Rate & Review on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/mark-bells-power-project/id1341346059?mt=2 ➢Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4YQE02jPOboQrltVoAD8bp ➢Listen on Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/mark-bells-power-project?refid=stpr ➢Listen on Google Play: https://play.google.com/music/m/Izf6a3gudzyn66kf364qx34cctq?t=Mark_Bells_Power_Project ➢Listen on SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/markbellspowerproject  FOLLOW Mark Bell ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marksmellybell ➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBellSuperTraining ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybell ➢ Snapchat: marksmellybell Follow The Power Project Podcast ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/MarkBellsPowerProject Follow Nsima Inyang ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nsimainyang/  Podcast Produced by Andrew Zaragoza ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamandrewz

you guys doing your private time please keep that off the air thank you very much and sema did i turn your microphone on yes oh there we go all right then we're good to go uh make sure you turn his back off well it was off in the first part of the last book yeah it's one of those buttons it's one of those buttons that you just press and you don't know if it's on or off. So now I know I can click it again. We're having a lot of trouble with our buttons lately.

Our volume yesterday on YouTube, the guy wrote in and said, your volume is lower than my IQ. That was pretty sharp. I question his IQ now. I know, I know. Yeah, that was really good. I know, maybe his IQ's high.

I literally could never be that funny. I know. You've been doing YouTube for a long time. You must get some amazing comments sliding in here and there, right? Always super friendly. They promote mental health to the fullest. Very nice people on the internet. Oh, they're so nice.

Especially YouTube, right? Oh, yeah. Especially when you move to the bodybuilding side of it. I don't know if you experienced that when you did your show versus powerlifting. Yeah, people just think you're just going to awful at it oh my god you rip you apart yeah but i never said i was gonna be good at it either i get told i was just trying it i think you're pretty good thanks i'll take that thank you for taking that yeah when you went to bodybuilding people were ripping you apart more though yeah no it's just like it's way more of a i guess petty would be the word it's just more

petty than powerlifting it seems to be it's just i feel like there's so much it's built so much more off of insecurity than strength training is not that powerlifting doesn't have its its people in it as well right but yeah bodybuilding gets super petty how did you do in bodybuilding how do you think you did honestly i did all right actually but i mean i competed like i stayed in my lane like i would never be competitive like on a nationals pro car chasing level i just don't have the genetics for it but i did all right in the shows that i did i did local i did regional i did uh one international show and i always did well i brought in like good conditioning good stage presence right so yeah bodybuilding is hard this guy's done some bodybuilding you've done a bunch of

bodybuilding shows right how many shows have you done like six i think six yeah i haven't competed in years i haven't wanted to step back into that dude i didn't i got out of it i did like seven shows and stopped in 2012 yeah and then i hated it i was so bitter against it why just because for a number of reasons like um it burns you out it does it burns you out really quick and then you end up just because you get so burnt out you end up focusing on the negative sides of it like i got so sick of people telling me i was fat when i was 12 body fat instead of seven and then like you just yeah i just hated i found strength training and I liked that so much more. And then I also, I liked the fact that strength was like a non-subjective athletic feat that you have to go and do on game day.

It's not just you posing like you're in a pageant and then having some dude decide if he likes it or doesn't like it for God knows why. That was what I thought when I got out of it. I recently did a show just this year, Christian Guzman show. And I actually had a lot of fun and I fell back in love with it again. That was my last show.

I don't want to do it anymore just because I'm not in love with the lifestyle. But I kind of got rid of like the bitterness. I got unburnt out. What did it teach you, you think? Balance and discipline, actually. I mean, discipline's a given. You need discipline to do a show.

But balance was a huge thing because part of the reason i got so resentful towards bodybuilding i think was because it was there was zero balance in it for me even mentally like i started off as a skinny 104 pound kid super weak and um i had like 11 and a half inch arms my freshman year high school yeah i was just like this twig. So for me, like being big, being like huge was everything. Like crazy bigorexia. And that's how a lot of people start, either underweight or overweight, right? And then what people do is they try to build their physique, same as I did, through bodybuilding of some sort, to some extent. And they end up developing these good physiques, but they never develop like confidence. So they put their entire world as their physique.

That's one of the examples of lack of balance. Bro, are you calling us out right now? I don't know, man. You got pretty fluffy back in the day. You have some good balance going on. You've done both sides of it. But what would happen, though, is I would just basically validate myself through bodybuilding which i see a lot and so like how awesome i was or wasn't how worthy of whatever was all based on how good my physique

looked at the time and then so when you take that with you that can be a good tool to like tunnel and go tunnel vision for a bodybuilding show for but man it'll burn you out so fast and there's no balance outside of that like i didn't know how to like eat balance it was either strict dieting or eating like an asshole um there was no like i couldn't balance like this this year this prep was the first time i was able to like really successfully balance um a relationship like not just because because in the past i would just tune out, tune life out, get full tunnel vision. You know, I didn't care about anything. Don't talk to me. Don't bother me.

I'm doing prep. It's not a way to live. So this show, I went in a lot more detached, taking a break from bodybuilding, made it so my validation wasn't in bodybuilding. It wasn't in my physique, which was nice. So I went into the show like it was a fun challenge for myself, but it wasn't like my end-all, be-all.

And learned a lot of balance through that. I was able to maintain a beautifully healthy relationship during the entire prep. Ariana was with me through the whole entire time. That stayed good. I stayed busy with business the whole entire time. We'll ask her if that's true on the next show. Stay tuned. She's going to be like, ain't it true at all?

Yeah. So discipline and balance. So the balance part was awesome. I Stay tuned. She's going to be like, ain't it true at all? Yeah. So discipline and balance. So the balance part was awesome. I needed that. Because it's good to be extreme in some areas. It can be a tool to hone in. But I think you also miss the boat if you're too tunnel visioned all the time. And the other thing was just more discipline.

You know, like less pity parties. Not relying so much on motivation. Let me ask you this. Because I remember back in my, even in like my main prep when I did like four shows in that season, my libido was shot. And with the woman I was at at the time, like I, first off, I didn't even want to do any of that stuff because I didn't have the urge to do that stuff. Right. But also emotionally, like I just found it difficult to show her affection, even if I was really trying to try. So you said that this prep for you, right? It was easier in terms of you two with that.

What did you have to like do? Like, what did you really have to think about? Communication was like the first part of that, just because there's like no way around that. Like when it comes to like those final three weeks, it's just the energy levels are so low. You just don't want to do anything. You're like you're in your own world completely so like the biggest thing was communicating this time around before ariana had never done a prep with me because i haven't done it in like seven years so before we got started i was very clear with her and communicate like this is what goes into it

it'll be all right through this part to this part and then the final x amount of time will be expect this you know i made it very clear got her on the same page but um the biggest thing was uh trying to show affection in other ways outside of that um never make her feel like she was just like this nuisance on on the side so like though like the libido hard to do that with a female. So like where the libido would go down, like, you know, but I do little things like I had to make my own little prep meals, of course,

but I might go and make her some fancy fun dinner for her, make it all nice. I get my own little meal going, but still like set up like a date night at home candles, like all fun stuff like that. You know, I'd, I'd go out with her to like,

you know, just show affection in other ways, make us feel like part of the team and stay communicating. That was the other thing too. So like if you start getting no urge for sex or energy levels are way down, don't just shut off and don't snap at her. Just be communicative. I'm drained.

It's not you. I'm drained. That's really it. There's no magical answer. You just got to try to make it a priority. Yeah. Wow. She's in great shape as well.

She's probably hitting the gym. Do you guys train together at all? Yeah. She's always great shape as well She's probably hitting the gym Do you guys train together at all? Yeah, she's always done Like she did martial arts And she was training to be a professional wrestler Damn Had a few, yeah Did a few shows

I was traveling around for a little bit We could do a match right out in the gym Oh yeah, she'll hit you with a chair Perfect I haven't been hit with a chair in many years So it'd be great I could use that So she does that And so we will go to the gym together But when it comes to gym stuff She's more like cardio I haven't been hit with a chair in many years, so it would be great. I could use that.

So she does that. And so we will go to the gym together. But when it comes to gym stuff, she's more like cardio. She'll do just some basic weights just for health and stuff like that. But we always hit the gym together and stuff like that. We just kind of do our own thing in it. Did bodybuilding teach you that you have another level, you have another gear to go to?

Yeah. That's what I noticed from it most. was like man i always thought i was like pretty focused and i thought i i thought i thought about this stuff a lot but not nearly as much as bodybuilding powerlifting is just different i mean you know there is a lot of prep and you have to recover from your workouts and everything but bodybuilding is the way i described it to people is it's like uh you watch a basketball game and you you see a team to use a use a full court press yeah that's what it feels like you have a full game and you see a team use a full court press. That's what it feels like. You have a full court press.

You got all this pressure on you 24 hours a day because there's so much shit to do. Yeah. Yeah, it is true. I would say powerlifting training can be a little tougher than the bodybuilding training, like in the actual gym. But that's it. Beyond that, bodybuilding is. And again, like when I got bitter, I used to be like, bodybuilding is just a pageant.

And this show re-reminded me of that's not true. But yeah, no, I agree. It is. It does push you to a whole different level. And like I said, everyone becomes so reliant on feeling motivated. It's easy to kill it on a day where you're feeling motivated. And bodybuilding teaches you to dig in and push through with just pure discipline. Right.

And even when discipline starts fading, like you're like literally physically, mentally exhausted and you want to quit, then you just reach that extra level that, that, that next gear you talked about where it's just like, there's no discipline or motivation, but you just have to do it. You have to force yourself to get through autopilot.

What about this show? Like caused you to, was it like the prep towards the show? Or was there something about this show that made you change your ideas towards a few things in bodybuilding? I think it was, uh, doing this prep with just a more open, balanced mind, doing this prep without like the body dysmorphia, um, doing this prep without like labeling myself as Nick Wright, the bodybuilder. Like that wasn't all I was anymore. Just seeing it from a lot more of an objective mindset. I think I was able to detach myself from the good and the bad and just see the bigger picture. And that it made it fun.

What do you like? What do you identify yourself with now? Because like you came up with like you started the teen bodybuilding thing and that, you know, grew. Do you like identify yourself as just an athlete, a bodybuilder, a powerlifter? As cliche as it sounds, I would just say powerbuilder at this point. But I genuinely like that. I mean, like I've thrown the word powerbuilder around before because it sounded good. But like these days, like I love the bodybuilding style of training. I fell in love with when I was doing just powerlifting. I got so one dimensional with my training. Like I would never target shoulders. I would just do the big three and some accessories to strengthen the big three. Now I love having the whole balance.

I love building the physique and getting the strength going at the same time. I think that's awesome. Look as strong as you are and be as strong as you look. Why do you think people, when they hear the term power builder or power bodybuilding, they get a little triggered? Because I know I've said it and people get all angry at me. That's a good question. My guess would be that probably because it's just been so thrown around on the internet so loosely.

It's like pretty much anyone who lifts weights calls themselves a power builder. If you do anything heavy at all but you also do an exercise that builds your physique at all, oh, you're a power builder you know if you do anything heavy at all but you also do an exercise that builds your physique at all oh you're a power builder but i think like i really embody that to the point where like i've put out my own programs that are power building and it uses actual i think that's when you become a power brother when you actually use real programming that you would in strength training and you guys know this like strength training that the programming and the training is everything like you're programming for strength training for powerlifting is as detailed as the diet is in a bodybuilding. Yeah, you normally don't really program in bodybuilding. Right, exactly.

So what I did is I implemented programming into bodybuilding, but then diversified a little bit. Got a little more hypertrophy, like well-rounded training in there, but still kept programming structure in there, balancing frequency, volume, intensity, same way we would with powerlifting. So that's actual powerbuilding, in my opinion, using the principles of strength training and applying it to building the physique as well. How has all this helped you as a coach, going from a 104-pound kid to messing around with bodybuilding and powerlifting? How does it help you communicate to other people?

I think the biggest thing is just, I can see where a lot of people are now at all different walks and all different levels. You know, that, that kid who might be severely underweight or that kid who's really overweight, or maybe that person who's been doing the basics for a few years and now it's plateaued and wants to take it up a notch. I've been, I've been there. I've been all through all those phases at this point, experienced all of it. So it's easy for me to easier for me to pinpoint where they're at and gauge what would help them move forward. Um, and I mean, my experience now is just so diverse in that area. As far as like, I've done the losing fat thing. I've done like

burning cardio and pushing yourself to that point to where you're dizzy every day. I've done the smashing, you know, triple body weight PR thing. I've done all like all angles of it now. I mean, there's still plenty more for me to experience and learn without a doubt. But I definitely think I have a lot of good ground covered now to where I can help younger or newer lifters out. Yeah. What do you think the biggest issue is facing people that like aren't getting what they want? Because there's a lot of people that train. Let's just say there's some people that work out that are plus 15% body fat, but they want abs.

They're 20% body fat, and they train all the time. What do you think some people are missing? I see it a lot. I see it a lot, and a lot of people will say, I don't want to go to a gym until I lose some weight. And you're like, well, the gym's a great place to start this whole process. I feel like there's a few different answers there. But for one, I think stop looking at social media and focus more on what your actual goal is because I think that's part of the biggest problem.

Like the first step is you have to have an actual goal of where you want to go. And social media might give you somebody else's goal and not your own, right? Exactly. And then you get swayed left and right. It's like, all right, I want to lose body fat. I want to get abs. So you start losing body fat. And you start losing some size, of course, because of that.

You might lose some strength. Then you see Taylor Wom deadlift 940 pounds. And you're like, I want to do that. Exactly. You see Larry Wheel shirtless, full and jacked, lifting a bus. It's like, so then they're like, oh, I want to get size now. So I think, honestly, you just have to pick a goal and you have to put 100% into it and stop comparing yourself to others.

And as cliche as that sounds, I mean, that's so damn true. Comparing yourself to others will, like, ruin you in all aspects, not just physical goals. And then I think the biggest thing people miss, too, is not setting goals that are outside of the comfort zones for themselves. Because to be very real, I would not have been able to stay on the prep I was on for this last show if it was just for the sake of leaning down, just for leaning down. Just to look shredded for the beach. I wouldn't have done it because it sucked.

It was so many days I just wanted to quit. What kept me going was the fact that I had a bodybuilding stage to step on, never mind in front of the internet now. So most people need, like I hear all the time, people be like, I want to lose X amount of weight or get abs. I stayed on it for like three weeks, but I fell off recently, blah, blah, blah. You need to set a goal

that's way outside of your comfort zone, that's incentive, that hangs over your head, that pushes you to like stay on track. So that's the biggest thing. I think direction and then incentive. Do you always have goals set? Like after this bodybuilding show, did you have something that you're trying to do next? Or are there periods where you're just like chilling?

I think you should always have some sort of goal set. What I like to do is I like to kind of waver between really big goals and some smaller fun goals. Because I think also diversifying where your goals are at. So like, for example, the big goal, obviously leading up to my prep was the bodybuilding show. Of course, after that, that was a big goal, daily thing. Um, after that ended, I set some goals business-wise that weren't so gym related, gave myself a little bit of a break in the gym and diet life. Um, and then just in the gym, because you still want goals even in the gym. Otherwise it gets aimless. You lose track of

training for the gym. I set some real short-term goals that were just fun and light for myself compared to like a bodybuilding prep like after the bodybuilding prep i wanted to get like a six plate squat um and then uh you know press see if i could press the the 150 pound dumbbells for like a clean set of five because i'd never spent a lot of time pressing dumbbells wow so you know like a little like you know but those are ones that i was on track to i hit the the 150s already last week. I hit that goal, and we'll try the six plates today. But stuff like that. Those are short-term, fun goals. They're not as ominous as a bodybuilding prep.

So I like to switch it up like that. In a few more months, maybe I'll get an idea for another huge competition of some sort that I might set my mind to. When you have somebody that approaches you about bodybuilding, and they say they're thinking about about doing a show and maybe they don't have the right look at the moment, right? Do you kind of cringe a little bit where you're like, oh, man, like I don't know like how it's going to work out for this person? Because like, you know, there's the whole side of it, the binge eating and the mental, the way it just kills you mentally. Oh, yeah. Like some of the people I communicate with, I'm like, man, I wish you'd take your time and train for a little longer before you go hopping into this.

Do you feel that way at all? Now I do, yeah, because I've had some serious issues with binge eating myself after this show that I've been developing probably since I was a teen, but they really reared their head now, and I mess myself up bad after this show. And actually, funny- We can binge eat together. It'd be great. It's a healthy friendship.

It would be epic. We'll both be so bloated passing each other some cheesy poofs. But it's cool because then we're powerlifters. That's right. If I get fat, I'm a powerlifter again. I'm not a powerbuilder. That's actually great, right? Because, yeah, you can kind of be in between when you have the in-between body fat percentage.

As soon as you get fat, you're like, no, I'm powerlifting. Like, you're fat. You're like, no, I'm doing a powerlifting. I identify as a powerlifter. Thank you. Like, shit, man, you're getting skinny. I ain't skinny. I'm a bodybuilder.

You got a defense. I'm physique fluid. That's right. I like that. I like that a lot. That's the name of the podcast right there. Physique fluid. I like it. Yeah, I a lot. That's the name of the podcast right there. I like it. Yeah, I actually just had, it's funny,

I just had someone message me on Instagram talking about wanting to get into it and stuff like that, but they said they were worried about losing their size. I told them right off the bat, I was like, I wouldn't. I mean, if that's something you're worried about, I wouldn't. And it's true because the body, see, I don't like to put blame on anything else. I like to hold responsibility for myself.

So people, like I messed myself up pretty bad from binging after my prep. It was totally my fault. It was just an irresponsible way to come off of a prep. And blew myself up. Got edema, gained 30 pounds water weight. I'm still flushing it out. My face is still round as ever right now. How long did it take you to get there?

What, from 30 pounds gained? Yeah. Oh, it was like a couple days. Oh. Oh, yeah. like a couple days. Oh. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I had pitting edema. Dude, my ankles looked like my quads.

It was all water. It was bad. It was bad. Yeah, everybody warned me against that, and they were like, you know, they're like, for you, you're a big guy. You could gain 30 or 40 pounds really easy. They're like, you know, try to just put on like 10 or 15, like a week late, you know, have a week out from that.

And so I try to make it my goal to be within 10 pounds, like a month out, a month from competing and stuff. That's the way to do it. If I ever did step on stage again, I'd want to get to a point where without even stressing it, just eating well-rounded. I like what you said about not tracking, just feeling your body out and adjusting. I like that. I think that's the healthiest way to do it mentally. And I like to do that and then maybe just get down to a point where I'm kind of leaning close to it

and then maybe just tighten it up the last few weeks or whatever. Is it a blessing or a curse knowing that you can, like, change, you know, so quickly? Man, it's both. Like, I think it can be a curse a lot of times just because it's really easy to get comfortable. You can be like, ah, I'll start eating better in two weeks exactly exactly when the new year hits i'll start eating better well i that's part of what got me in trouble with this last prep because i had to double time it like i already did a short prep as it was it was 13 weeks and then i kind of just

like i half-assed a little bit i traveled a lot in the beginning and like i was kind of loose with it because in my head i was like i'll just zip it up the last month. And I did zip it up the last month and I paid for it. One thing I really love that bodybuilding did for me is it taught me that it doesn't matter like what time of day it is anymore. Like people get so associated with, oh, what should I eat for breakfast? What should I eat for lunch? What should I eat for dinner? And as a bodybuilder, I mean, bodybuilders, yes, they have like oatmeal and egg whites and things like that. But you don't really have to adhere to any of that. You can wake up in the morning and have

a chicken, you know, chicken and rice or a fish and rice. It's very common for them since they eat six times a day. And since the meals just are nonstop, is that how you ate too? Did you do a six meal a day type of thing or something different? No, hell no. I couldn't do that because my appetite is too damn big, especially with the binge eating habit going on. So what I actually did is I broke the traditional rules of bodybuilding. All the old school guys yelled at me, but I would do intermittent fasting. And I trained fasted. All my biggest PRs I ever hit were always fasted.

I just feel good doing that. So I would train fasted, and I wouldn't eat my first meal until after the gym post-workout. And then I'd really try to space it out. I ate about maybe four meals a day on prep, and they were small meals though because my calories are so low because again i had to double time it so my calories were really that was the other reason too if i if i started eating first thing in the morning dude i'd fill up my calories by like mid mid-afternoon you're also a lot hungrier definitely you know the earlier you eat the more you're gonna eat

you're gonna be hungry the whole day definitely and. And my calories are just low. I was like low 2,000s down to 2,000, like the final stretch of it. So it's like I would fast all day long and then start eating around 2, 2, 3, 4, depending on when I went to the gym, how long it took. And then, you know, eat at like, say if I ate at like 2 or 3, then I'd try to like force myself to wait like 4 hours, eat again, you know, later afternoon, then at night around 8, then last meal, like 10, 10, 11 for bed. And the other thing that sucks is I work from home because, you know, this is what I do. This is like my full time. So I work at home and it's funny. I,

this was the first prep I had done not working nine to five. Cause my last bodybuilding show was in 2012 when I was 21. And that was the year I left the nine to five world. So every show I'd done was while working multiple jobs. And I, I had a hard work ethic when I was 21. And that was the year I left the nine to five world. So every show I'd done was while working multiple jobs. And I, I had a hard work ethic when I zoned in, I was always very extreme. I'd either be lazy or I'd be hardworking. So I was always very,

and I, I was always thinking like, man, if one day I could make it to a point where I like didn't have to work a nine to five and could do these preps without that, I'd be great. It's wrong. When you're saying,

when you're sitting at home and that fridge is right there next to you, oh my God. And you're already hungry because you're on a diet. That's rough. I actually envied people who could go out and do like 12 hour shifts and stuff just because you're out of the house and you're busy and you're not sitting next to the fridge all day. No matter how busy you keep your mind on the computer, it's like you can eat whenever you want. You can take your lunch break whenever you want. So that makes it a little tougher mentally. You said you do this for a living. What's this? just the whole fitness thing social media you know the youtube channel segued into of course sponsorships and endorsements and then

segued into businesses branching off of that so that's been my full-time how long have you had the youtube channel for well man i i started i mean I've had it registered forever, but like, I think I started making videos like the end of 2009. Oh, gee. Yeah. And then 2010 was, I did the Vault Series, which people that follow me forever will recognize the name of. And that series, that was fun because like that series. How old are you?

I'm 28. 28. So do you have some stuff when you look back that you're kind of like, oh my God. Oh, everything. Just because like, it's probably the beginning of some of your lifting career. Oh my God. Everything from like my Just because it's probably the beginning of some of your lifting career. Oh my God. Everything from my camera quality to my demeanor on camera.

Oh, there's so many videos I look back. The only reason I don't delete half my videos that are old is because I'm too lazy. Oh my God. But yeah, I made the Vault series and that kind of kicked it off. And that did kind of pioneer YouTube fitness as far as what it is today.

I mean, Christian guzman and matt ogus both even told me that and they're pretty like og as well yeah hell yeah so i mean that that was kind of cool to have gotten that going back then um but yeah a lot of those videos are so cringy what is the vault series that was the up to the, uh, natural Mr. Olympia, which was INBA, I believe. And, um, I actually got the inspiration from watching the little Wayne documentary, the Carter. It's a, it's a really cool documentary. Just like, it's like reality TV kind of just on him.

And he's just such an out there character. And, uh, does he like kick the guy out of his, uh, room? Like the reporter comes into his room. He's like, yes, get the fuck out of here. And the guy's like, I didn't even say anything. He's like, I just don't like you. Yeah, that was it. That was from that. That was from that documentary. So I watched that and I got inspiration from the structure of that to do a similar style, like homemade documentary. And yep, there's the cringe there. Look at the PJs on that guy. Nice. Yeah. So that was like a series

that I still meet people at Expos and be like, dude, I've been following you since the vault days. I've always just loved it. It's been fun. Dude, your arms are massive. Thank you. Yeah, you're pretty jacked right there. Thank you. I don't know how old I was in this. I must have been. And then, like, where are you? Parents' basement or something?

Yeah, parents' basement. That's another thing I'll get too from, like, I'll go to Expos. Dude, I've been following you since the basement days. Vault days and the basement days. That's another thing I'll get, too, from, like, I'll go to actual, I haven't followed you since the basement days. Vault days and the basement days. Those are the two things I get. You should just tell people, like, fuck with people. Be like, I still live in that basement. I live in that basement.

Yeah, I still live in that basement. You got to keep the overhead low, right? Exactly. What's your diet like when you were doing the bodybuilding show? Like, you mentioned the intermittent fasting, but was it just like low fat, basically standard bodybuilding style diet? No, it was actually closer to what you do. It was – I prefer higher fat, lower carbs. Just preference.

I just – I felt better on that. I felt less hungry, less cravings on that. And if you eat carbs, is it like an onslaught? You're just going to want to eat all of them? Yeah. Yeah, for real. Because I would have high carb days. Because like I had – shout out to Dan Mackler, one of my best friends and training partners. all of them yeah yeah for real i because i would have high carb days because like um i i had a

shout out to dan mackler one of my best friends and training partners he did my diet for this because he's a genius and i just personally i don't want to think when i do a prep i don't want to be in charge of the yeah i think everybody needs a coach you need somebody to text too when you're like feel like you're gonna jump off the ledge especially especially those final couple of weeks you can get in your own head and mess your own self up overthinking so i had him handle it and he he did an amazing job and um but he would give i remember telling him he'd give me these high carb days once in a while and i remember dreading them like who dreads a high carb day because my calories would be low again 2300 calories maybe at most but doing cardio twice

a day and going to the gym so that goes fast and the carbs will only be like 200 grams of carbs you know some of that being fiber so it's like i'd have this little bit of carbs and it'd be the biggest tease. It'd be amazing. And then I'd just be starving an hour later. It's like I couldn't wait to go back to low carb days. What have you done like kind of more recently in terms of competing? Have you done a powerlifting meet or a bodybuilding show like in the last couple of months? Yeah.

So I did a deadlift. I've done all full power meets um but i did a deadlift only meet just because my friends were doing it uh right before i started my prep so that was march i did a water cut from 193 maybe down to 181 did a deadlift only meet and then that that was on a saturday and then that monday i started my contest prep for this bodybuilding show. And then I competed in Christian Guzman's Summer Shredding Classic. That was June 29th. Oh, okay.

That was just not too long ago. Yeah. Yeah. So that was recent. Is that hard going back and forth between the two? Honestly, not really. Well, to be fair, I haven't jumped fully back into full power mode where I'm just doing the big three and accessories to the big three and aiming for a meet. Like I said, it's been a blend of bodybuilding and powerlifting. So it's been a little bit maybe easier and a lot more fun.

But no, it hasn't been a problem for me because I keep programming in my preps. So I maintain a lot of strength leading up to my show. And so when I came out of my show, as soon as I got some calories in me, it's like my numbers were already pretty good still. Cause I just never really stopped lifting heavy. Go ahead. When you transitioned to like doing bodybuilding and then doing powerlifting also, did you notice like a change in the way you looked at training or your enjoyment of training? Oh yeah. Like how did that help you out? Man, powerlifting literally fixed my training. It like brought it to the next level. What I'll say, and I'm saying this as someone who's guilty of it and someone who competed in bodybuilding forever,

a lot of bodybuilders on the whole, they're starting to get better these days because of the internet, but up until recently, a lot of bodybuilders just don't know how to train. They really don't. I'm not talking just about the obvious stuff like partial reps. They literally, the biomechanics of their lifts are just awful like horrible and that's why you see so many lower back injuries from bodybuilders deadlifting because they don't know how to deadlift you see so many points you see more torn pecs in the bodybuilding world from flat benching than you

do in the powerlifting world um just because they don't know how to do it the biomechanics aren't there a lot of bodybuilders won't bench press because they're they've gotten hurt on it before right exactly and it's it's insane and with powerlifting it's funny it's like you always hear form form this form that that was oh wow that was uh that was during the cut right there that was that was 178 pounds i think that was 600 damn dang and nice yeah um there we go and a double bicep. And a double bicep. But yes, it's funny. A lot of them don't know how to train.

So like powerlifting, you always hear use good form because it's safety. Use good form is safety. When you're a teenager, you're like, yeah, whatever. But with powerlifting, as you know, you need good form to lift the most amount of weights. It's just physics. If something isn't firing correctly, if your knees aren't tracking in the right direction, hips aren't opening in just the right way the smallest details off you're not gonna be able to hit the maximum weight you might be able to if everything was perfect so really teaches you like the biomechanics of the actual movements of these lifts and and then you also learn so much

more about programming too and that's why like like i said this that 600 pound outfit there was during a cut um and i was still able to pull it off. Not astronomical numbers, but it was still solid for me. And that was just from applying programming that I learned from my powerlifting. What made you start a YouTube channel? Did you feel that you had something to share, or were you just trying to document some of the stuff you were doing? It started initially because I just wanted to share my bodybuilding like competitive bodybuilding i was competing as a teen you're like people are gonna be blown away by this i'm

fucking jacked really i'm going to the internet i did i had a blind a blind confidence that was like ridiculous looking back but i was glad i had it because it made me jump in right but yeah i wanted to showcase and at the time there was nothing like that on on youtube um was there anybody else you were kind of following or was there any sort of like mentor maybe like even if it wasn't on youtube was there somebody in the gym or was there like a jay cutler or ronnie coleman you were following or anything like that so for youtube to actually like inspire me to get structured on youtube was a guy named steve mead who's not in fitness at all he does custom car audio and shout out to steve because I think he actually lives in Sacramento.

I think he's around this area. I followed him since I was super young. He has a crazy-ass system, like 30,000-watt system. The bass shakes buildings. It's nuts. But I'd watch his channel religiously, because that's another thing I was into doing on the side for money, custom car audio installation.

I'll show you my buddy Sean's shop in Woodland. He's got all kinds of crazy shit like that. Yeah, that's sick. You would dig it. That's really cool. So you were following him and mimicking him. Well, that inspired me to pick up the camera and stuff like that. As far as bodybuilders go, Ronnie Coleman was always

my biggest idol with bodybuilding. What a mutant that guy was, right? Well, that's the thing. He was strong, too. That's why I liked him a lot. And I love Jay Cutler for his business sense. Right. So those were the two I followed. When you were younger, i know when i was younger uh and i saw those magazines i was like yeah i could actually get that big were you were you naive like me oh of course of course i'd be sitting there like 104 pounds eating my little sandwich with turkey

like i'm gonna get like these guys yeah oh my god yeah and it's like the the more knowledgeable you get the further and further away that dream is. Did you have anybody early on that could school you about nutrition and stuff? No, not really. No. No. My uncle did bodybuilding non-competitively, and he looked really good. But he was old school, too, so he was all about just went by the magazines and stuff.

So no, it was all just self-learning through the internet and a lot of trial and error i think that's what makes youtube so special and guys like yourself and guys like guzman yeah right it's like this community from kind of uh the beginning stages of fitness and youtube kind of coming together yeah and there's a lot of people who are like yeah i didn't really know anything but i started watching you know these videos on youtube and you're like i mean even bones jones has said that's how he learned how to strike yeah right and you're like okay fuck no it's insane it's like and that's why i said like you see a lot more power if there's utilizing bodybuilding eskia nutrition now which is good and then likewise you see a lot of bodybuilders who are now learning how to train um now i think that's largely because of the internet you see bodybuilders 100 and then

look at uh look at the females you know look at how strong the females have gotten in in powerlifting and i think a lot of that has to do with social media a lot of that has to do with crossfit i think crossfit was maybe um maybe more welcoming to male and female participants where powerlifting not that it wasn't open it just uh there was just a lot less females yeah you know for a long time yeah the internet got me into powerlifting johnny candido is the one who got me into powerlifting actually because before i was like that classic naive i thought powerlifters were just a bunch of fat guys doing one rep maxes with really weird colored plates i could never tell goatees right just sit in the corner and they bitch about the government and they do a set every 10 minutes yeah with really funky colored plates right uh but then i saw johnny doing it on youtube and i was

like oh my god that's a kid who's like my size using real gym plates i can see how much is on the bar yeah he's strong as shit yeah yeah and that got me into it so the internet's been good yeah it gets you fired up you mentioned doing a lot of cardio um what are your thoughts on cardio like do you think it's like if you did another bodybuilding show, would you still utilize a lot of cardio? Sound like you had to do it because you had to quick prep. I'm all for it now. I used to be back in the day, I used to be all

like, let the diet do it all for the cardio. Now my metabolism is not as friendly. Man, as I'm getting older, I'm just appreciating just heart health and health all around. Right. And just the beauty of being able to eat more because you're burning off more. So, yeah, I'm pro cardio for sure.

I think from a mental standpoint, it's nice to just to have, you know, 30, 40 minutes of something, whether it's just like walking outside or whatever. If you're going a little harder and you're using a Stairmaster or whatever, it's kind of nice just to sit there, listen to music. Oh, yeah. It's a way to like calm down while you're still doing something yeah i agree a thousand percent it's super cathartic i i even told ariana that like i'd leave we have a treadmill in my basement and but i'd usually drive off to like this little private gym we have and i'd be the only one there i do like 10 11 at night and i just go to my last session of cardio there and she would even

be like what you have to drive out. She'd feel bad. Like, oh, you have to drive. I tell her, like, no, I'm excited for this. Because it is. You get, like, the 15 minutes just to drive in your car there, listen to a podcast, music, whatever. Then you get to the gym, and you get to just zone out for 45 minutes. It's like a recharge.

Do you walk, or is it like a more intense type of cardio? No, I'm very lazy, so I walk. Okay. I've thrown on a weighted vest recently. That's my that's my thing recently um just because and it's not dramatic but just the extra 20 pounds and the longer you can keep it on like you can keep it on all day that's even better but just the added weight um you know you get you get to a pretty fast like walking pace and get on an incline stuff

like that and you added 20 pounds just extra calorie expenditure your body's just supporting that extra 20 pounds yeah i uh was wearing a weighted vest for a while jesse burdick had me do it he calls it fat man cardio and uh he's like yeah just throw on a weighted vest and i was like oh how much you know should it weigh he's like just like he's like you're fucking fat and heavy as it is so he's like just use like 10 pounds or something you know so i threw this weighted vest on and it's the the vest is like um it's kind of like grayish silver or something and i had it over top of a hoodie i had a hoodie on and i'm walking down the street i'm walking the streets of davis and i'm doing like this fast walk you know with my arms kind of swinging and a cop comes

up and he's like he's like excuse me and i was like huh he's like everything okay and then i i put my hood down and i was like oh he probably thinks i'm like some crazy bastard with like a bulletproof vest i'm like i'm like oh i'm exercising i'm like this is a weighted vest he's like carry on have a good day i was like oh this guy probably thinks i'm a maniac yeah running down the street with this weighted vest i always feel slightly badass with it on i feel like i look cooler than i probably do it is hard to leave it on for a long time it is beats the hell out of you oh my god then when you finally take it off you feel like a million pounds with a bad back yeah how have you turned youtube into a business um that doesn't make any sense to some people some people are like huh what is he doing with it i obviously make uh you know some money from

the views right yeah you make some money for sure like i i've done actually did a video where i went over like income and like views for my channel would be like, you know, the highest might be like 4,000 a month off views. So like the views are there and that's a little extra income, but the biggest beauty of YouTube and any social media is you are the advertising platform, you know, like you're the kind you, you have to focus on your content first and you have to bring value to people first. That's your first priority. But once you have eyes on you, you know, that's like, you're're the marketing platform these companies pay for anytime a company pays for a commercial or a billboard i mean you're that so um you have a lot of power there so with youtube what i mean what i started off doing was just the the videos and then just sponsors you know and sponsors would pay well you

get um salaries and stuff like that you get commission which pays a lot more than i think people realize people People I found, people either think sponsors, you either are broke and you get nothing but the product or you're like multimillion dollar contracts. It's right in the middle. Yeah, so I mean, from there,

it's like you branch off into your own businesses. So I've had, you know, my own apparel lines go and I've partnered up on different brands with other people that are on social media as well. You have an affiliate link with us, for example. for example yeah yeah like you can actually use nick 10 on there you go mark bell slingshot and get 10 off everything it's crazy there you go oh that's that's interesting because

i think a lot of people like they're not sure of like how that all works you know obviously it's um it's easier for you to do now because you got you know you got a following right yeah but how did you how did you start to learn some of that you just started doing it and uh you know how did you even gain a big following in the first place so i think the first the most important thing to put out there is if you are looking to get on youtube just to make a living out of it i just wouldn't get on youtube because i've seen that fail about a hundred times like you have to start off with a passion that you're passionate about showcasing. Like you mentioned the guy with the car audio.

Yeah. Like the car audio. Who cares what it is? Just something you're passionate about. He loved it. And it blew up. And like you, you did powerlifting. That's how it started.

You were in love with powerlifting and wanted to share that. And that blew up. And same with, that's how I started with the bodybuilding. So you have to have, cause it grows so slow. It grows so slowly. Slow crawl. Yeah slow crawl yeah you're not gonna make anything so i've seen i've seen a hundred times people will want to get into it for the wrong reasons they want to make the money they want to get the sponsors start their own business whatever and they get into it and they try it for like i don't know a week a month a year and they don't get thousands and thousands of views they don't get money and thousands of views. They don't get money, and suddenly they start getting discouraged

because, holy shit, videos actually take a long time to edit, and wow, and then they quit. So you can't be aimed at the money. Money was not even a thought when I started, and I still try to not make it my forefront. You want to keep your eye on the ball with business always and constantly stay moving in business, but, I mean, for me,'s like the when it comes to youtube the content and and whatever i'm passionate about

showcasing needs to be first in line and then i think everything from there falls off of it but for me you know honestly like um i have strengths and weaknesses like everyone else marketing was a strength public speaking was a strength sales uh weakness was business mind like I wasn't horrible in business, but I wasn't like super analytical with it. Like Christian Guzman is someone who was like, I've been friends with him for years. And he's an example of somebody who's just got an amazing business mind. And both of his parents are entrepreneurial.

I think that's so cool. He's so good at seeing the picture. He knows all the numbers and everything. And that was always a weakness for me. I just, not that I couldn't get my head around it. I just never had an interest in it. Like I was just, I'd never thought about it. So for me, I was always marketing came second nature, you know, linking up with sponsors and, and getting my own brand out there and selling my own brands, you know, clothing lines,

that was all easy. But as far as like really expanding these businesses and scaling them, that was something that like, I have a much better grip on it now and I'm working on some new things now, but that took me like a long time to get. But for me, I was just, that was something that, like I have a much better grip on it now and I'm working on some new things now, but that took me like a long time to get. But for me, it was just sharing what I loved and then marketing myself. And if there was a product that I used and loved, I would contact the company that made the product

and be like, hey, listen, I'd love to share your stuff more. Why don't we work something out and get something going like that? Do you handle all this yourself? Yeah, 100%. And did you go to school for business? No. I decided really early on that I hated school for the structure of it.

I realized I was good at whatever I was interested in and horrible. I just hated it. I don't like the structure of it. I think there's so many flaws about the education system in general. So for me, I think school is needed for certain fields for sure. Medical field, there's a bunch of fields where it's needed, but I think for a lot of people, people should really just focus on using school as a tool to get where they're going. If it can get them to where they're going. If not, I mean, it's so easy to learn so

much now in the age of the internet. Would you come across like that idea for yourself? Like that you didn't really have to go to school to achieve what you're doing right now? Probably my 100th time getting kicked out of class in seventh grade. Oh, snap. Okay. No, that really was it. I'd always just horse around and get in trouble in school and blow it off a lot. Like I said, I would ace classes that I really liked. And then, man, if there was a class I didn't like, it seemed so stupid and pointless to me.

And then I think I hadn't really thought much about this until like right the second. But I think maybe getting into bodybuilding as early as I did at 14 and learning it myself, maybe subconscious. That also kind of showed me like, OK, if there's something I actually want to learn and get good at in life, I can learn it myself. I don't need to go to school for this again, depending on what it is you want to get into. What about like editing and stuff? You film and edit your own stuff? Yeah, yeah. I love that.

Ariana will help me film sometimes. She's awesome with it. She's got a creative mind. And I love editing. It's something I enjoy doing. A lot of times I hear people like they want to start something, but they're like, I'm not going to start until I get this. And I'm going to need someone to film it.

I'm going to need an editor. And it's like, well, man, maybe you're thinking way too far ahead maybe just how about you shoot a couple videos yourself and see if it works exactly start there just dive in maybe with your phone or whatever yeah 100 just dive in that's what that's that's what i tell everybody i mean you're never going to feel ready there's always going to be even with business too and like i said that i'm i'm uh trying to segue more into business now outside of fitness and that's like the area where i'm not super like confident so that's all like learning for me but it's just a matter of diving in doing my research and diving in as much as i can trying to copy us

that's why you came here exactly you're filming everything i saw you i know what you're up to out there what kind of things are you doing right now to get better at business man i'm just so like i'll lay out a plan like and there's some like new brands i'm working on right now that get better at business? Man, I'm just, so like I'll lay out a plan. And there's some new brands I'm working on right now that I don't want to discuss until they're obviously too fruition. But I think I just got really fed up with things I was bad at and wasn't good at and things I hadn't really dove in, divin, plunged into. Good recovery.

Thank you. Thank you. As long as I write a public speaking. plunged into and recovery. Thank you. Thank you. That was always all right. Public speaking, but I got fed up with just things. I wasn't like that savvy yet. And I knew I wanted to start doing some new things outside of fitness. Um, so what I just forced myself to do is just really lay out a game plan. I'm blessed to have a lot of friends around me that are very successful. So I have a lot of people I can go to for questions. And, um, I've been able to see a lot of the inside of structures of a lot of businesses that are very successful. So I had like a good layout of what needed to be done. And I'd lay it out, make a game plan in any area that I knew I didn't know anything about, you know, like ad targeting, for example, something I've dealt

with a little bit, but I always hired someone else that really handled that for me in the in-depth, you know, the Facebook pixels and retargeting and the really intricate side of it. So this time around, I've spent hours and hours and hours with my morning coffee, taking notes on notes on notes and just studying that and researching that. And I'm still not an expert on it, but that's something I'd like to be able to do myself and become really good at. Yeah. And just stuff like that.

Scaling the more analytical side. Got to talk to our boy, Josh. He'll help you with that a lot. Hell yeah. YouTube is something that you have to know stuff about, too. I mean, you need a good thumbnail. You need good titles. There's ways of optimizing it to get better views and things like that.

You must have learned a ton about that kind of stuff. What are some things someone can do to help kind of get their video to get a few more views? Thumbnail and title. Those are the two biggest things. Thumbnail needs to be catchy. It needs to catch your the two biggest things thumbnail needs to be catchy needs to catch your eye and the title needs to be something that's catchy as well clickbait clickbait there is i do think there is a middle ground for clickbait it is sadly it is needed you're competing with like media nowadays yeah so you need some bit of but there's a way there's extreme

clickbait which is totally misleading and there's a way where it's it's in the video. You might have just spruced it up a little bit. Oh, my dog. My dog died. Yeah. Yeah. No, it didn't really. Like one time I was like one time.

I think I used this one twice, actually. One time I took a picture of me like standing. I think it was just random. I don't know why I was like in a store, just like standing, looking sad, like a jacket on as in some public place. And the title was Let the Single Life Begin. And like everybody had no me and her and then, but they watched the video, it gets to the point where we're in the gym and it was like, yeah, we're starting heavy singles now.

So that some people were mad about that. Yeah. People get butt hurt about everything, right? Literally everything. You know, I don't know if we can backtrack real quick but you mentioned the binge eating right yeah you mentioned that that was a problem but i feel like it seems that you've you've figured out ways to fix that because even i had an issue with that after my bodybuilding shows in the past like i ate a whole tub of peanut butter once right what have you done to like fix that because a lot of people struggle with binge eating so like how have you fixed it or how are you fixing it? Um, first thing is learn about it, which I won't get too, too much into cause I've done videos on it and we just shot a video here. Oh, okay. Um, before you guys got here actually. Uh, but short and sweet. Um, I recommend the book brain over binge and that's not a plug. I have no affiliation with that book. I went and bought it after I saw it recommended. Yeah.

and that's not a plug. I have no affiliation with that book. I went and bought it after I saw it recommended. Yeah. Really good book. It, uh, it breaks down the experiences of a binge eater and it breaks down the science behind it. So that is step number one, learn about what it actually is, what's happening in your brain and how the habit was formed. And that will then teach you how to identify the binge when it comes up and how to, um, start tackling it. And that's something that we could get into for like hours. So I'll just start with that. Get that book, Brain Over Binge, read that. Good first step. Once you have that down, little things like get out of dieting. If you're in a diet and you're having a binge issue, stop diet because the diet is going to mess you up. You know, ghrelin's raised, leptin's low. You're going to be hungry. That's going to not help anything.

And also get away from this tracking mentality. i'm not saying tracking is bad or unhealthy inherently i'm just saying if you have an issue with binging especially if you already have an unhealthy relationship with food things like tracking being neurotic about your diet it's going to amplify it so get away from tracking get away from that and um well people probably aren't tracking the shit they binge on anyway right exactly yeah but i found like when i would track my daily stuff it leads like the binge urge i understand yeah and then what ariana actually helped me do too um was she would start making like my breakfast for me and she would make like a really well-rounded fun breakfast just in a moderate amount so she'd make like a little egg sandwich with like you know bread and like a

little bowl of like some fun sugary cereal stuff that normally my brain was programmed to be like, okay, I'm having this now. So that means I need to have a light protein only meal later on to counter it. Or I'm having this today. Tomorrow needs to be higher cardio and lower carbs to balance it. Like foods that were like trigger foods, more or less, you know, like you, there are foods that you put on this pedestal of being like bad. What eating those every day in moderate amounts was doing was helping me get back in line with just the fact that they're just foods. They don't need to be put on a pedestal. You don't need to feel guilty for having them or get excited to have them.

And that kind of makes it so it's like you don't get overly excited about any food. You don't feel guilty about any food. It just gets you in a healthy relationship with food again. Food is just food. And then it really puts the focus on just amount. Just eat a reasonable amount. And that's like the first big step. And then the one little tip I'd give anybody who's dealing with binge eating,

when you binge, this is a trait in all binge eaters, you eat really, really, really fast, like a dog in the wild, really fast. And one tip that I found helps me a lot, slow down. Just take, take your time with each bite, chew, make yourself breathe between each bite. And I found this does actually slow your mind down a little bit and helps you kind of get in front of the binge and you can kind of cut yourself off a little bit easier that way. What are some, uh, some warning signs? Like, um, you know, somebody listening is like, oh, wow, that's interesting, binge eating. But they're totally ignoring something that they're actually doing that could be leading to binge eating.

If you – I mean a really common example is if you're dieting or trying to watch a cheat or whatever and you maybe go to have like two cookies. You're like, I'm going to have two of these cookies right here. And then you're like, all right, I'll just track these cookies if you track, you know, or you make a mental note if you don't track. All right. Let me just have one more cookie. That's it. I'm done. I'm done.

You try to keep yourself busy. I'm going to have one more cookie. And you keep going back and keep snowballing. Finally, you had like 10 cookies. And then suddenly you're like, all right, you know, I'm just going to have these cookies and this bowl of cereal. And I'm just going to cut out my entire dinner for the rest of the day. Like you make these wages with yourself. And the next thing you know, it's like you're snowballing uncontrollably and you're getting like anxiety too. Like you're getting anxiety, trying to resist it

and you feel extreme guilt. That's a, that's been, you have a good, good sign of binging right there, especially if you're in a diet. And, um, and especially if you do that and then you try to really counter it by doing extra cardio the next day. I read, I did not know this. I read that's actually, that's a type of bulimia because I always thought bulimia was just eating and purge like throwing up, but purging can be any form of trying to counter out it. Binging is eating an insane amount of calories more than necessary in a very short amount of time with no sense of control over it. And then purging is just doing something to counter that increase of calories that is more extreme than what you would normally do um so i would i would do that i would

eat and go crazy and just go and kill myself for the vengeance the problem with it being extreme is that it's going to interfere with other things that you're doing so it might interfere with your recovery you might end up being over trained and underslept and we've talked a million times on the podcast about sleep you know sleep's gonna shitty sleep's gonna make you make bad decisions and it's just you know cascades on top of it so that's a really good point too I didn't think about that but I noticed that too I would

do that I would kill myself with cardio to counter it and I'd go hard as hell like the next three days to balance that out then by day four especially if I was in prep it's like I'd be burnt out and that'd lead me to like want to binge again because I was just gassed. Yeah, and a lot of times I like what you said about maybe kind of forgetting about being on a diet. Maybe forget about being on a diet. Maybe forget about just the idea of under-eating.

Maybe forget about the idea for a minute of just trying to weigh less. Maybe try to get some good nutrients, get some good food, good healthy food in you, maybe try to get some good nutrients get some good food good healthy food in you and uh you know try to have a little bit uh you know maybe just easier go of it with the foods that you're eating like you said you you get like frosted flakes or something and it's not that's not a sign that like the whole day is blown and you're going to just eat like a pig the whole day exactly no exactly that's that's the best way to put it and just getting familiar with those foods takes away that that power Frosted Flakes would normally have. What do you think about cheat meals on the topic of binging?

That's an interesting one, too. I feel like, well, if you have an issue with binging, you're really going to find out when you give yourself a quote-unquote cheat meal because you'll likely just go off the charts with it. What do you like to do? That's tough because I'm in this point now where I'm getting myself back under control with a healthy relationship with food, so I don't know if my opinion is even the best. I mean, when I would diet,

not for when I was in contest prep, there was no cheating period, but when I was dieting for a photo shoot or something a little more casual, I would diet all week and then do a cheat on the weekend, like on a Saturday or something like that. I think if you can control them,

if you do it in the form of a refeed where it's structured, like you actually give yourself a structured amount of calories to follow, that can be beneficial. It's tough. It's tough. I think if you have a good relationship with food and you can balance it, I think a cheat meal is fine. I think if you don't have a good relationship with food,

a cheat meal is going to Right. I think if you don't have a good relationship with food, a cheat meal is going to help fuel that, whatever that unhealthy relationship is. I think it's a tough balance of trying to get people to, like, you want to get people locked into their plan because you know that it's going to take a long time. Somebody needs to lose 50 pounds. It's going to take them time. Right. And they need consistency. And, like, we're not trying to lose 50 pounds and, you know, have that be some heroic thing. We're trying to lose 50 pounds and uh you know have that be some heroic thing we're trying to lose 50 pounds and keep it off forever right and so because of that

like this whole process has to take a long time so you're hoping that the client you're hoping that the person you're helping uh can not even have a desire to have a cheat meal yeah but it's really not realistic so it's like man maybe if i just if i tell them once a week they can have a cheat meal we already know they're going to eat more than one cheat yeah well you know they're going to they're going to eat they're going to probably spend the latter half of like their saturday or sunday and probably pig out hopefully it doesn't turn into a whole weekend yeah uh ordeal but it's a little easier for them and it's easier for their relationship with whatever they have going on at home and they can say hey look here's what i'm doing. I really want to lose weight. I

want to put everything I got into this, but you know what, on Saturday, you and I get to go out and we get to go enjoy some wine and I'm just going to eat like whatever, whatever comes our way. So I think it's easier for people to do that. The problem is it's like a banana peel, right? You slip on it and you know, you're going to end up probably wanting to eat everything in your house. And it gets to be really, really difficult to manage. But hopefully through over a period of time, you can maybe as a coach, you can communicate with the person and say, how was that cheat meal? How did you like that? Was it good?

Did you end up eating more? Like, you know, what was the deal with it? And then you can say, okay, well, let's see if we can just control that a little bit more as we keep going. And hopefully over a period of time they can learn not to go too crazy. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think that's, like I said, I think if you can apply that balance, it's good. It's one of those tough calls where it is kind of necessary, especially if you're really trying to make a transformation. What's your favorite food?

Oh, my God, what isn't my favorite food? Everything. I love all fast food always. Like, I'm a huge junk's your favorite food oh my god what isn't my favorite food everything um fast i love all fast food always like i'm a huge junkie with fast food though i've actually haven't had it much after this this show but fast food man i love chipotle i love cereal it's edible i like it pizza i love pizza i do pizza every sunday before uh before pressing yeah pizza sundays are pressing mondays do you still we don't have pizza sundays here we have pizza for breakfast yeah we do have that i was gonna ask you what's your favorite cereal then oh man lately i've been on um uh sour patch kids cereal kick which is yeah no it's a cereal people either will hate or love and you know what's funny i don't even love it it's not my favorite cereal but i've just been on a kick of it lately why

is it sound like legit sour it tastes like fruit loops with a slightly more sweet tart flavor like the candy sweet tarts and it does sound with milk yeah with milk it doesn't taste like an actual sour patch candy i hope not it's uh literally you know what sweet tarts taste like yeah that candy they're like yeah they're not they're like not super sour it's kind of like that taste but with like a a fruit loop texture it's really not it's not even i don't know why i like it so much right now in semen it can't be any any worse than raw liver that's true yeah it's impossible why liver it's an acquired taste though what maybe this is this is this is too no this is too yeah you'll even hate her i love it there's a movie i think it's called

i think the movie is called that sugar movie and there's a scene in it where the guy's just like he he pours tons and tons of sugar into the bowl and he's like he's he like specifically went somewhere so that people would see him like eating it and he's his point is is like this is the same as eating cereal right and he's just crunching on this sugar. And he's like, with no milk or no nothing in there. And it's just great. It's a great scene because you're like, yeah, that's pretty much what fucking cereal is. Oh, you know what's my favorite cereal? Nutter Butter.

Nutter Butter. Nutter Butter. Nutter Butter. Nutter Butter. Nutter Butter. Okay. Nutter Butter cereal. Let's get behind that.

It is like a big bowl of shit. Oh, my God. I'll eat it. I'm like, who am I? Corn and sugar. It was supposed to help prevent you from whacking off, but I don't think anybody does that. What? That's what cereal is made for.

Cornflakes. Mr. Kellogg. That's why he created it. Wait, are you all serious? Most of the whole- He's a doctor. I'm with him. Yeah.

Yeah, no, it's a true story. Wait, what was the whole, like, what was the thought process behind that? It was a religious thing, right? Like, if you're eating, you can't whack off because you're using your hands? It's supposed to surprise- Yeah. They're like, how do we get kids to use both hands doing something? That is one benefit of binge eating. thing right like if you're eating you can't wag off because it's supposed to suppress like keep your hand on your orange juice and then your spoon on your yeah i i but i i don't know i don't remember why but yeah the guy who made it supposed to

suppress your libido i guess got it doesn't work Doesn't work. I don't think it works, but it probably is a bowl of estrogen and a bowl of a bunch of other bullshit. Yeah, that's true. Yep. You still fast? Because you said you messed with that for a bit. You'd still- I like intermittent fasting.

Yeah. I'm actually curious to see how squats are going to- this will be my first time squatting heavy not fasted. Oh, okay. So- Do you think fasting helps binging or or makes it worse i think you can make it worse you got to be very careful with it like that was one of the first things um ariana and i ariana literally just held my hand through this because i'm such like a stubborn meathead

so like i'll just stay in my ways and she's like no no no like you're killing yourself you gotta let me help you so um she started making my breakfast and she also like had me like experiment with not um fasting at first and it actually did help because you eat a bigger breakfast at first and it satiates you because i like fasting a lot and i think fasting has some benefits in the sense that it can uh it makes your appetite a little bit smaller by the end of the day so you know you can eat less calories and feel fuller but um you know if you have an issue with binge eating or whatever then now you're just getting your appetite revved up that much higher so by the time you finally do eat it's like go time yeah so i i got a good grip on that and then i eased fasting back into it and

so now what i do is i'll fast and i'll make my post-workout meal my first meal of the day big and i'll make it well usually it's like an omelet with some like chicken in it and stuff some cheese melted in the omelet and then like i'll do like a bowl of with some chicken in it and stuff, some cheese melted in the omelet, and then I'll do a bowl of oats with some blueberries and stuff. So I'll make a big meal, and that'll be one of my only two major meals for the day, usually a smaller meal in between. But yeah, no binge with that anymore. I think fasting is great, like intermittent fasting,

fasting for 16 hours and things like that, because for a lot of us that lift, I think we like to eat. Oh, yeah. So the fasting, it sounds counterintuitive, but the benefit of the fasting or the big bonus that we get is we get to eat later on and you get to kind of stuff yourself. A hundred percent. Yeah, I agree. Like I said, if you can get a grip on the binging part of it, that's the way to go. I like just the big post-workout meal to break it fast. Do you still feel uncomfortable when you feel like hunger?

And the reason I ask this is because like, it's interesting. We had a woman named Georgia Ede on, and we were talking about fasting. She's like, Oh, that's not really good for a lot of people though. Right. And you're also saying that for binging and for people that have those issues, fasting might not be ideal. And I see why you say that, but something that I, that helped me when I started doing intermittent fasting, um, was really being comfortable with being hungry and not like having hunger and immediately turning to food. Cause I used to do that. So do you, do you still feel like, like does hunger uncomfortable for you or not hunger? No, I actually went the opposite way for me. Um, maybe just cause the dieting itself, uh, for me, I associate that feeling of hunger with almost like a weird discipline so i actually like it i kind of go into the hunger a little more like if i feel hungry i'm like hell

yeah like we're partitioning and mobilizing fat like it's yeah and with the amount i eat it's like it's not a big of a deal but you know you just for me yeah hunger i just feel like i'm being more productive so that doesn't bother me what actually messes with me is when i actually start eating and then oh my god like when i eat and then i just become more ravenous with every bite and that's why i said like i'll force myself to slow down between bites and then it kind of gives me a chance to like unwind that that urge but yeah i'll eat and if i don't force myself to consciously like it was weird because i didn't feel i like did i lost my ability to feel hungry it's like what you hear with those six my 600 pound lives.

It started getting like that. Like if I wasn't in pain, my stomach wasn't in pain, I wasn't full. I get to the point where I was like full, like what normal people call full. Your belly's full and you're like, oh, that was good. But in my head I was like, well, I'm not hurting yet. So I can technically fit more in so that I'm still hungry. So it was like that. So like Ariana would ask me, she'd be like, well, are you even still hungry hungry going from like my eighth bowl or something like i don't i don't know i think so

uh so what i what i started having to do is literally i'd eat like a big size meal and i finish it and i'd immediately my impulse would be want to go and get more of something and i'd literally have to force stuff to stop take a breath and yeah if you wait like 10 minutes you're usually it does it helps it helps kicks in and mentally too but i have to be like all right you know what i feel starving still but just logically that is a big size meal i have to be full there even if i don't think i have to be full i just tell myself that and then i just wait it out like you said and eventually it would pass and now it's like okay right some people say like you know after a meal you should be able to like get up and go for like a light run right you know and it's like that's if you could keep that rule of thumb your whole life you probably would never even really

need to be on a diet yeah yeah no seriously but who the hell can do that no i would eat to the point where i couldn't even like lay down in bed i can't see yeah that's like the old louis ck bit he's like uh you know the doctor's asking me like so about how far into a meal do you stop eating or how far into a meal when you're full do you stop eating? He's like, I don't stop eating when I'm full. I stop eating until I feel like, oh, shit, I can't breathe. You're like, oh, I went too far. Yeah. Dead accurate.

Yeah. I remember I used to think about that, too, because back then I had no idea about nutrition either. I was like, I don't know. When do I stop? I think a good way to look at it is that you know um a hunger can be healthy you know a modest a modest amount of it and especially through like intermittent fasting i'm not talking about someone who has like a eating disorder or something like that but like i think some hunger just like we can all agree food is very healthy for us uh not eating can be very healthy as well

just going through some periods where you're like shit shit, I'm really hungry. And then waiting it out for extra hours. It's not going to kill you. It's not going to cause any negative damage at all. What I'll do now, too, is to kind of like weed out if I'm actually hungry or not is I'll ask myself, could I go and focus on doing work right now on the computer? Or I'll actually go and try to do the work in the computer. And nine out of 10 times I can get through the work fine because I'm not actually hungry. I'm just in front of the fridge. Once in a blue moon,

I'll be like, all right, I'm just going to go do work and my stomach will still be growing. Then it's like, okay, I can't focus. Now I really am actually hungry.

Yeah. But yeah, that's, that's like a good test. If you can focus on doing something else, you're not hungry. What was your nine to five job that you had before? Well,

so I got my first job technically when I was 13 at Oatley's restaurant, I was washing dishes and I was working like illegally like 50 hours a week at some weeks. And a lot of like a lot of rough around the edges people in there. But I like that. It got me up to speed on like the real world and the working world quick. And then so throughout high school, I got a few other jobs also in kitchens, prep cooking, cooking dishes, line cooking, a whole lot of yards.

And then senior year, I was doing the restaurant, senior project in school, body, dishes, line cooking, a whole lot of yards. And then senior year, I was doing the restaurant, senior project in school, bodybuilding prep, and then doing landscaping and construction on the weekends. Wow. And then after high school, I knew from the very start I wanted to pursue my own thing. I didn't want to go to school. And I was confident in it.

So out of high school, but I still had to obviously work a job. So out of high school, I went right into full-time construction and landscaping with Real Handy Incorporation in Warwick, Rhode Island. And it was fun. It was a lot of cool experiences, masonry work, wood and everything, everything. And then at about 20, and this is all while I was still pursuing the YouTube and trying to get that running.

And around 20, I started working for GNC and then found out I was really good at sales. I'd also done some cold knocking sales jobs too, selling Kirby vacuum cleaners and stuff. And then found out I was good at sales and then shot up to management and worked. I managed a corporate store in a mall for GNC for a while and made good money for a 20-year-old kid at that time. And then all along, all the while, still dieting for shows, doing YouTube videos. And I was trying to market myself that way, too. I'd go up to RTN.

Shout out to RTN. I don't work with them anymore, but good-ass relationship. They're my first sponsor ever. And I would load up supplements for them and drive two, three hours into New York or wherever. Set up a little table at some store and do a demo there for hours for them. You're hustling. Shoot. Yeah, man.

I'd film the whole thing too. And it's all about how you market it. So like I'd, I'd basically just be like a, an underpaid sales guy, a sales rep more or less. But what I would do is I would like get clips of it and, and had the shirt and everything. I'd be like, my sponsors are sending me here. I'm doing like a little tour of my sponsors, meet and greet, come beat me. Yeah. You make it sound like it's a cool deal than it is.

And I would actually have people that watch channel. You get like three people at that time. Like that would show up and say, hi, um, yeah, I was doing all that. And then so corporate jeans,

but then man, in 2012, I just like, it hit me. I was managing my own store and it was good. It was at the time. I don't know how it is now, but at the time it was good money.

It was, uh, 55,000 a year or something like that with benefits, 401K plus commission. Again, for a 20-year-old kid. Yeah. And it was – after working laborious jobs, it was nice being in AC, not having to shower after. 20 years old, that was pretty awesome after the labor I'd done. And I had also oddball jobs too.

I worked at Toray Factory as a subcontractor. So we did like the 12-hour days and like the iron, working with like the metal, the boots, the clean suit, the hard hat, all that fun stuff. So I'd always done labor stuff, which I liked. And so that was nice being able to work. But man, summer of 2012, that summer was the last bodybuilding show I did.

I did not have a minute of a social life or life at all. I was just like, because I was managing. So if employees don't show up, you've social life or life at all i was just like because i was managing so if employees don't show up you got to be there and it's just like 60 hour weeks and it hit me i was like i am wasting my life away literally to make someone else money and i was like i could be applying the same amount of time to making myself this money and that's how i always looked at things i'd be at gnc and i'd be like you know most employees just go through like blocking and facing and everything we're taught to do blindly counting the time of the shift ends i'd be like looking at it and be amazed at like the marketing and like you go to like the little gnc portal and you get like the newest update from

some supplement company on like their newest way of marketing it and i always be so intrigued by that i was like man imagine get to a point where your brand is getting carried by different stores or third-party stores and you can market it with this strategy and that strategy yeah so then it just i was like i'm done with this so i just quit and i moved to virginia um richmond virginia with uh my cousin at the time i was been close with him and then that's where i actually met max tuning um and i got him he was a fan of mine hit me up asked to work out we became really good friends yeah and then i got him on youtube and now he's blowing up. He's killing it.

The deadlift man. Yeah, yeah, yeah. His channel is awesome. I mean, he's killing it. His business is killing it. So it's crazy how things work out. Wow. But that's it.

Shoot. Yeah. How come, what do you think, you know, makes you so driven? You know, like, is this from mom and dad, or is this, you know? I definitely think mom and dad has something you you know i definitely think mom and dad had something to do with it as far as they're always very supportive and encouraging yeah they didn't care that you were driving you know into new york city no they were all for it because i was always very like hard-headed and independent and i was always good at selling things too so i'd

make everything sound awesome but um no like my dad would always like he'd always help me out like he would work night shifts. He'd wake up and drive me to the gym when he should be sleeping. He'd work out with me. He was always an in shape guy. But, you know, he didn't have to do that, but he'd do that. Like we could support us, stuff like that. So I think subconsciously just having that, I've seen it firsthand. It's like having somebody behind you, whether it's parents or whoever,

that is that blindly confident in you and supporting you, even if it's like indirectly. I think that does a lot for one's confidence. So I think that has a lot. I think I'm very grateful to have had that. I think that helped boost my confidence enough to just make me dive into things and get out there. Any brothers or sisters? Two younger twin sisters. Vanessa and Christina,

they're fraternal twins, so they don't look anything alike. Two and a half years younger than me. Oh, okay. Everybody live in Rhode Island? Yeah, we're all born and raised in Rhode Island. That's a state, right? It's a state.

It's not a town in New York. It's the smallest state, right? It is the smallest state. It's not a town in New York. People will be like, where are you from? Rhode Island. Oh, New York. I've been there.

Yeah, they think it's like Long Island. Yeah. They get all confused. Rhode Island's interesting because it's the smallest state geographically for sure. And population's still small. It's just north of a million people, I think. But you don't feel like you're in a small state when you're in there. It doesn't have a small town feel to it. Well, depending on where you go. You have Providence, which is a big downtown city area.

Then you have a lot of beach areas that don't even feel like they're part of the state. So it's interesting. I think that's why some people end up staying there. I don't want to stay there, but I think that's why people do. It's a weird state. It gets fucking cold there, right? It does. It gets warm in the summer.

It's the same temperature as here, but plus humidity. It gets cold in the winter. Do you always, with your business right now, do you want to remain independent, or do you want to partner with people and do stuff like that? I want to remain as independent as possible. Man, I don't see partnerships work out long-term ever. I can't think of very few people start off as partnerships in business

and end up lasting. The only time i see at work is after you know two parties have already established themselves and then they you know if if two businesses are already done well and they're like hey let's partner up on this new project right right they both already understand how to do business and at that point it's like a financial agreement right and i've done i've done little things like that like i i was a silent partner um with brett gibbs for his line i was just distributing and stuff like that of power lifter right yes uh okay three-time world champ he coached me for a while i actually got to give him credit he he was he was the one who brought my lifts up to where they are and gave me like a lot of the knowledge that i have now with lifting he's he's got an insane eye as a coach for strength

training and he became a really good friend um but yeah so i i agree with that if you if you're both already establishing something jumping in on some extra project can be fun but as far as like someone partnering with me on my own primary thing yeah i couldn't do that i'm also very much the type where it's like i hate being micromanaged i hate being on someone else's schedule i very much like need to be doing my own thing on my own time it's good that you that's great that you recognize that but it's also good that you ate shit for a long time and actually just did it yeah you worked for other people for a long time most people you know they just they're they don't want to do that they don't want to they don't want to like uh have those years where it's fucking hard right no that's true they just want

to get right to where you're going so like i'm just going to start my own thing and it's like but you don't have any you don't have any history of starting anything else you definitely need yeah i think social media is guilty for that people just see right everything looks like an overnight success on social media and then nothing looks like it requires any work ethic on that side of life right so when it does yeah when you left gnc did you have like a safety net or like a plan b or i mean yeah i didn't think so but i just wanted to hear from you see these arms i'm out of here yeah i'm taking these guns and i'm leaving pretty much man i just don't same way nobody puts these guns in the corner yeah same way i dove into bodybuilding when i really shouldn't have

i just dove into not having a job when i shouldn't have. I had, I just turned 21. I had, I remember having about 15 grand in my account at that time. And that was pretty much my safety net. And then I went down, I was making maybe, I started making some light money off YouTube and a little bit of commissions on sponsorships. But again, everything was very small back then. And so I was making maybe like 600 to like 1100 a month, a month. And rent would be like that. Right, dang.

I was breaking even and treading water. But it was like fight or flight. And I've found recently that's what I thrive best under. I find when I try to scale things back and live safer, I tend to become more complacent. When I kind of put myself under a little bit of pressure, I do better. What supplements do you like? Being that you worked at a GNC for a long time,

you've been in the fitness industry doing bodybuilding and power lifting. Are there some supplements that you enjoy? Tren. Oh, there we go. That's what this guy does. That's not true, everybody. Disclaimer, I'm not on Tren. Not actually on Tren.

Trensema, we call him. Trensema. No, honestly, man, really just pre-workout, and just for the sake of caffeine, to be honest. I mean, I've dabbled in all different ones. I've done creatine, which I think can have its benefits and essential fatty acids and some pump products can be fun for the gym. But honestly, I mean, I'll get on something for a little bit, use it, love it, get off it, forget about it. It doesn't really make a big difference. What about like just protein powder just for flavor just because it's like –

like for me, I like it because it's different than eating steak. Right, right. You know what I actually liked recently during this prep a lot was Ghost's vegan protein powder. And I'm not vegan at all, but this powder actually tasted really good to me. Granted, disclaimer, I started using it when I was in prep, meaning my taste buds were desensitized so and i just stayed liking it so you know try it and make your own decision bodybuilders that say they like apple cider vinegar right you're like

that does not taste good at all so so try it make your own decision but what i liked about it is it was really smooth like i'm not lactose intolerant but dairy just tends to digest harsh for people in general and what i noticed with this is there was a no gas no bloat they usually get from like post-workout shakes there's none of that which is beautiful and then um this might have been just all in my head but i swear when i was getting close to the show i just felt i felt like i stayed a little drier on it versus when i'd have the dairy i feel like i get a little softer look and just sit with just from the bloat and stuff the watery tension so that was was like, I definitely like that. But, you know, I still like playing around with different ways.

Like I love MTS for their flavor. But, yeah, I don't try to, these days I don't glue to too much. I still use the same pre-workout all the time, which is Isatori's Morph Extreme. And I buy that on Amazon now, so I'm not even affiliated with them. Even protein bars can be a slippery slope. Oh, yeah, because it's like eating Snickers. It is. I mean, they're making them taste better and better all the time,

and there you are eating two, three, four of them. Yeah, no, those are dangerous. I shy away from those for that because they'll really get you because they're so damn tiny, but they're so calorically dense. You have this tiny little bar, and it tastes delicious. It's like eating one cookie. You want another one, but you look at the back, and it's like you just had 250 calories. You just had a little meal. It kind of gets you excited to eat something else, too. It's like eating one cookie. You want another one, but you look at the back and it's like you just had 250 calories.

Like you just had a little meal. It kind of gets you excited to eat something else too. It does. It doesn't really satisfy the way you would like, you know? It does. And then by the time you eat something else, it's like now you have that little protein bar added on top of that.

So you just got fatter for nothing. Yeah. Just make the excuses. Oh, it's just protein. It's just protein. I can eat three more. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What has worked for you strength-wise? How have you been able to build your strength? make the excuses oh it's just protein it's just protein i can eat three more yeah yeah what has

worked for you uh strength wise how have you been able to build your strength um you've deadlifted over 600 pounds you squat close to 600 pounds uh you benched over 400 pounds yeah right i mean those are some great numbers and especially for uh your body weight how you've been able to do that like do you do do you do high amount of sets or what's no i actually uh i'm one of those guys that doesn't respond well to high volume some people thrive off really high volume and i i don't i shit the bed really quick if you give me high volume so for me um on average lower reps was always my thing so like for benching i really did my best actually staying around like the four rep range even if it was lighter even if i needed to be higher i'd do more sets overall

and add more frequency throughout the week, but just lower repetitions. And same with squats, like rarely ever higher than six reps on squats. I never do eights and stuff like that. So, and then, um, as far as the actual volume itself goes, like I was never the type to be doing like 50 reps in a single workout. Like some of these guys do. Right. Um, you're more like just maybe two or three hard sets, and then that would be it, mainly for the main exercise? Yeah, like four sets of four, maybe. Depending where we're at, it might be six sets of four

if it's earlier with lighter weights. But, yeah. Those kind of workouts are brutal, where the volume is real high. Yeah. The amount of sets are real high, and the reps are kind of moderate. Yeah. And it's like, that's the worst. Six is.

Like, that six range sucks. Because six is like, that's the worst. Sixes, like that six range sucks. Because six is like, it's low enough reps to where you're definitely using heavier weight, like heavy weight to be taxing. But it's high enough reps to where it's like, you're not doing three reps anymore. It's too many damn reps to be doing with that kind of weight. It's cardio.

Yeah, somebody had asked, what training split do you prefer now, bodybuilding or powerlifting? So I do both. And I have a lean strength program on my site, NickWrightBodybuilding.com. But I spent a long, long time designing it and running it and rerunning it so it was perfect. And that one's designed more for if you're a seasoned powerlifter, so you're used to some higher volume, and you need to start a cut. If you're a seasoned powerlifter, so you're used to some higher volume, and you need to start a cut, and of course, if you want to implement some bodybuilding training, so maybe a powerlifter who wants to do a cut and get his physique going like I did, it's designed for that. Or it's good for anybody who's in a caloric surplus, like not dieting, but just might be new to strength training, good way to get the feet wet for strength training.

But that is one example I use for all my cutting, And that was like, it was five day split. It would be upper body, lower body. I only did lift once a day. I mean, once a day, I only go once a week. And that's just what I found for me too much. That looks like burn me out fast. And then I do like a back day with that and then repeat upper and lower. And it would start off with the bread and butter, squats, bench press, you know, the big three. And there would even be some variations. One of the days was like a long pause bench press, slow negatives. But then you followed up with all, like, you know, lateral raises, stuff like that. But everything's just programmed in. I don't like – I never got into, like, the generic splits.

Do you ever notice any, like like i don't know if you could but did you did you notice a difference in your physique after you started adding heavier lifts into like your training a lot a lot of thickness added yeah a lot of like my weak spot has always been my chest my chest and shoulder region and um my chest blew up for me more than i ever had after just benching super heavy. And this cut showed it a lot too. For anyone who had followed me, I got a lot of positive compliments saying that I really brought my chest and shoulders up,

especially the chest area. But it was really just from that heavy ass benching and doing it so consistently, high frequency, multiple times a week. Yeah, tremendous, tremendous change. Did you always program for people, or is this something that you just kind of always wanted to do? No, I don't coach people with that. So it's a program I designed, and it's available on my site.

And it goes by percentage, and it goes by RPE. So it's about as detailed as you can get before having to coach custom make you your own. But no, it's just something like I basically just, something I would want to use something that gets me results and then i just share it and then i kind of made it just generalized enough to where you know because i have certain things that i need other people might not need might not be necessary so i generalize it enough like switch out a movement

that maybe i need to bring up a weak spot with a movement that i know overall could benefit anybody and everyone did that come from like demand people asking you for help uh yeah actually yeah i'd get asked all the time what my training split was i mean it's like super common question and people would also ask how i maintain strength during a cut and then also that was the other thing i really wanted to share just like so many bodybuilders miss the ball and everyone loses strength and thickness when they cut dramatically and you're going to it's unavoidable you're going to lose it to an extent. But you don't need to lose it as fast and as hard as so many people do,

including myself. I used to just a month into a diet, lifts were gone. Yeah. No programming. Programming saves all that. So that's why I also want to get it out there for people, give them an option. How has your YouTube evolved from the beginning where we saw some of those pictures of you flexing in your PJs, you know, versus, you know, over the last three years or so.

It's been crazy. Man, it was a lot of adjusting with times that I've seen a lot of older YouTube channels not do. Some of that I attribute to friends, you know, like Max Tuning, for example. I put him on. I got him on YouTube. you know like max tuning for example i put him on i got him on youtube but max is like a genius in his own respect and has a great eye for uh marketing and youtube better eye than me he watches a lot of channels i don't even watch outside of fitness and he has a good knack for that so though i put him on i would then in turn pick his brain about how he structures his channel

and learn from him and that helped me kind of adapt with the times a little bit but man it's it's it's segued. Like, in 2014, I started powerlifting. So it turned into pretty much like a powerlifting-only channel. And that was exciting. So it went from following my journey through bodybuilding to following my journey through powerlifting and all my powerlifting meets. But eventually it got so one-dimensional. And then I started – I actually got burnt out from YouTube.

Yeah, that can happen. In 2016, I got burnt out from YouTube. And I was just, like, kind of sick of posting and I kind of fell away and then views dropped and growth like really plateaued for a little bit. And then, um, I got really back active again, probably 2018 ish. And so that's, that's about where we're at now to that 2018 started the blend of powerlifting and bodybuilding. What's your favorite thing about it? YouTube. Man, creating. Just creating.

Like, I love that. Like, I love getting in my own world and being able to create content that I would actually want to watch of my favorite person. That's the most fun part to me. And then just being able to interact with so many people. You know, they're all strangers. Just having thousands of people interact with you and they start to get your inside jokes. It's like having a whole extra family. It's crazy. What videos have worked for you that maybe you weren't expecting to go really well?

Oh, man. Because sometimes you don't really know. You're like, I'm just going to put this up. I don't know how it's going to go. I did a video once called Supplements, the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. And I thought it'd be all right. I thought it'd be like a little bit of a hit. And it blew up

you can see it's like 1.4 million views look at my crazy hair back then i don't know why anyone let me leave the house like that face was just as fat hair was even fatter dude i remember watching this video now it just hit me right now yeah man so i did that and that blew way up wow um i also did some videos with like Boston Lloyd when he first came out. Yeah. And I actually jumped on that one fast because this was before Rich Piana was even like blowing up. So nobody had been honest about steroids. And I remember him posting stuff on Facebook about being honest.

And I said to him, it's like we need to make something because it's going to blow up. And I did a few videos with him. There's one video we did that I deleted that had a few million views. It was called my, I think it was something like my first $1,500 steroid cycle or something like that. And it was essentially just me. Hypothetically, we're just shooting the shares. Like, so Boston, say you want to blow me up to like become a prime bodybuilder overnight. What would you put me on? And he started giving me all these doses and we rounded up the price. But then like, I, I kind of got nervous that somebody eventually would try it and hurt themselves and sue me.

So I just took that down. Oh my God. But there's still a few videos with him that aren't so dangerous on that topic. What, uh, what's caused you not to take the leap into that realm? Just,

Oh wait, he's claiming that he's natural. Half Natty, half Natty. Honestly, I just feel like if you don't have the genetics to become something like top of the line, I don't know if it's really worth it. Or unless you can monetize it. Okay.

All right. So even in terms of gaining in strength or whatever, why do you prefer not to? Is it just because you don't think you'll be able to get to a 900-pound deadlift or squat or something? Yeah. It's debatable if my genetics would even be able to get that far. Yeah. And then just the strain it would put on liver, losing hair, all the shit that goes with it.

It's whatever. It's all personal choice. But for me, it's just kind of like spending the money and putting that kind of risk just to kind of be average. Like I said, it depends. If someone was like, hey, we have an opportunity for you in Hollywood. I need you to jump on some trend i'm like then hell yeah hell yeah but yeah okay makes sense yeah it's always uh always interesting to kind of hear why you know some people don't do it and i think sometimes like you just get to a certain point

in your career where you're just like well i'm just not usually people don't do it like really late in their career like if they're lifting for five years ten years ironically that's like the best time to do it yeah you're probably gonna do it like in the kind of early going but once you've already kind of gotten past that you're probably not gonna well you wonder what the funniest reason was actually it's kind of ridiculous but i really like leading up to the 405 bench i so badly wanted to hit a 405 bench naturally just for myself that was because i was so weak at bench like benching was my absolute uphill battle genetically and um i suck so bad at it so i was like man if i could ever get to that four because in my head at the time you know this is before the age of social media where everyone's

benching 500 pounds at 180 um at that time, it was like four plates. It was like only big linebacker dudes or juiced up dudes are doing that. So in my head, I was like, that's one thing I want to do. And I hadn't hit that until 2017. So that was like – it was a really ridiculous reason kind of, but that was one thing. I want to hit that four or five bench natural. What's it like going to these trade shows and stuff

and now having such a big following? What's it like having these people come up to you? And here you are, you know, teaching someone how to get like bigger biceps or get in better shape. And they're saying that you help change their life. It's amazing. It's unreal. I mean, it's like the coolest feeling in the world. That's one thing I never I'll never get used to. And I'll never like take for granted. Like I don't. Granted i'm not at like that celebrity level or anything but i don't know how people can ever become jaded with that and start like brushing off like fans wanting to meet them because to me i'm just like blowing away every time like you want to meet me i'm just like another average idiot lifting in the gym like uh it's the coolest feeling in the world it really is there's nothing comparable to it we mentioned uh you know with

youtube we mentioned the thumbnail. We mentioned the title. What about the content? I mean, the content is crucial. And so over the years, I mean, part of the reason why you got burnt out was probably, like, you just didn't want to think about it anymore. Because you can't really – you can film just your lifts, and I guess that has some merit, right? But in order to be, like, a YouTuber, you need to, like, do more than that, right? Yeah, for sure. Yeah.

Gym footage burns out quick. It doesn't get anything anymore for views. You mess around like skits and funny shit here and there. You know, no, that stuff does do well. I've just never – the idea of trying to get a funny skit has always been overwhelming to me. I feel like I just fuck it up. Try to intentionally be funny, yeah. Yeah, exactly, exactly.

If you say something funny, then so be it, right? People like a lot of day-in-the-life stuff. They like seeing your daily life. They like seeing the inside of the lives of people they follow. And they appreciate good editing, clean-cut, cinematic-style editing, which I enjoy making. So, yeah, content needs to be on point. You need to really show your personality.

Your personality is what will get your following going. That's what brings people to you. Do you still do a lot of like blogging type stuff? I do. I try to keep it blended in there. It seems like such a pain in the ass. How do you keep doing that? It is a pain in the ass.

Well, I've definitely like my video upload is not as frequent anymore. Like I do like maybe a video a week now compared to like I used to do like three videos a week, four videos a week. And I'll do a little blend. Like there'll be maybe a certain day where I vlog. You know, if I came here, I might have the camera handheld vlogging like that. But maybe like the rest of this weekend, we just do cinematic shots, B-roll shots,

action shots, gym footage, whatever. So for me, I just, I literally try, it's very intuitive. I try to just go by gut feeling. Like I go very much off creativity and what's exciting to me at the time. So if I want to, if I'm feeling it's to share something and do it very raw right up in the moment handheld holding the camera here that's what i'll do if i have like if i'm feeling it out i'm like you know what this would look

really cool just being cinematic b-roll style shots with cool music over it then i'll do that so i just kind of feel it out and really just stay doing what i feel like doing creatively i think that's a pretty big deal like you know rather than falling into the trap of doing something that like maybe it's hot at the time but you really don't enjoy it you know figuring out what you actually like to do because you can do that for a long time and you probably won't get burnt out right you know yeah definitely you seem to stay doing what you love that's what it comes down to you in any books actually yeah but i'm not into any of like the business books or lifestyle books like i see a lot of people posting those and i've never been able to get into them.

So I'm just into fiction. I'm all about Stephen King. That's it for me. The Dark Tower series is the best book series in the world. What about TV? What about watching some TV, some movies, stuff like that? We try to find different shows to watch all the time. I don't even have cable, actually.

I just never bothered to buy it. Just use Hulu, Netflix, YouTube, Premium, all of that. Breaking Bad't even have cable, actually. I just never bothered to buy it. Just use Hulu, Netflix, YouTube, premium, all of that. Breaking Bad was the best show ever, followed by Dexter, besides the ending. The ending is why Dexter's not number one. Sons of Anarchy was good

up until the last seasons. It just kind of got repetitive and far-fetched. People just get too tired of writing, I think, at a certain point. Yeah. Game of Thrones was good up until the biggest letdown. Oh, man., at a certain point. Yeah. Game of Thrones was good up until the biggest letdown.

Oh, man. Yeah, that's bad. Yeah. These shows. I'm looking for a new show now, though. The endings suck. Yeah, I know. It's hard to, it's like, you know, go on Netflix or something.

It's kind of hard to settle in on something. I can't get into the Netflix shows. And you find something, and then it's like in, like, German or something. I don't know what the fuck. I've been re-watching Pretty Little Liars with Ariana recently. She's been showing me that. And that's actually a good show. I'm surprised.

Yeah, that. No. No, I know. My girl watches that. You know a show that I am very embarrassed that I actually liked that my girl put me on and we watched together? Vampire Diaries. I've never watched that.

You shouldn't watch it. I'm already. You shouldn't watch it. It was pretty good. I'm already watching PLL. I've never watched that. You shouldn't watch it. You shouldn't watch it. It was pretty good. I'm already watching PLL. I might as well. Oh, man. There are shows, though. There are shows that you really get

into them when you watch them with your girl, and you genuinely like them, yet you just couldn't watch them by yourself, though. I remember her watching when it was out. Like they call PLLs. Oh, yeah. She her watching when it was out. Like they call it PLLs. Oh yeah. I remember watching, she was watching when it was out

and I was like, I can't get into this yet. But now she's re-shown and it's really, it's good. I'm like excited to watch it at night now with her. But I don't think

I could watch it on myself. Yeah. You know, she was watching a few episodes of Gossip Girl and those few episodes are pretty cool but I think it was

because I was watching with her and I'm like, should I watch Gossip Girl with her? Am I still like, what's going on here? I don still like what's going on here i don't know what's going on you're like no jujitsu powerlifting jujitsu i'm going to bed do some man stuff we've we just finished up orange is the new black oh i tried watching the new season that just came out man did you watch any of the previous ones, though? Oh, yeah, yeah.

I'm all caught up. I'm all caught up. But, man, I don't remember, like, I don't know if it's a new thing with me or just because I eat when I watch it now, but I get so grossed out by, like, the meth head's teeth in that show now. Like, it never used to bother me. Now it's all I can see. I had to turn it off because I was eating.

Yeah. I was so sick of seeing bad teeth. Want to watch Breaking Bad? I love Breaking Bad. That is the best show ever. Yeah, it's really ever yeah it might be still never seen one episode wow it's amazing well so the first the first give you something to do first uh first season's actually kind of like hard to get into second season really picks up

and after that's crack yeah just be careful man especially when you're picking up a series like that you don't want to lose like well that would take so much time i'm just waiting till like i get like i don't know some like crazy bad like illness where i'm stuck in a hospital for like six months i'll just catch up on all these breaking bad uh it's everything oh i can't wait yeah unfortunately sarms didn't hurt me that bad so i'm still okay breaking bad is like the best show ever don't add me it was really good good. There you go. Hey, man. Awesome having you here. Can't wait to get a lift in with you,

but I also want to do a podcast with you and your girl. Oh, absolutely. I think that will be a lot of fun. For sure. Where can people find you? YouTube.com slash Tim Westwood TV. No, Nick Wright. YouTube.com slash Nick Wright. Instagram and Twitter are both at Nick Wright NWB.

And I try to stay as interactive on all of them as I possibly can. Strength is never weakness. Weakness is never strength. Catch you guys later.